REC Ltd., a state-owned power sector financier, has issued India's first tokenized corporate bond. Approximately 20 institutional investors participated in the offering, including HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank, the two largest private sector banks in India by market capitalization.
The transaction utilized a permissioned distributed ledger for ownership records instead of traditional depository systems. Settlement was conducted atomically through the Reserve Bank of India's wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), enabling same-day pay-in and listing on the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The technical foundation is based on DEMAT 2.0 securities accounts, an upgrade to the existing dematerialized account system. To participate, buyers required access to these new accounts and RBI wholesale CBDC wallets.
The issuance was carried out under the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (SEBI) regulatory sandbox framework. Participation was restricted exclusively to qualified institutional investors to manage risk and gather data for potential future scaling.
The project does not use public blockchain tokens or crypto assets. It follows a trend seen in other markets, such as the EU's DLT Pilot Regime and Hong Kong's tokenized green bond program. L&T, a major engineering and construction conglomerate, has reportedly proposed its own tokenized bond offering.
